writers

Portrait of the Artist as a Single Mom

“I want to be a writer,” I said out loud, maybe for the first time. I wanted college to help me to support my family, be a contributing member of society, get off food stamps. But what I wanted most of all was a book I’d written to hold in my hand.

December 29, 2017

My Expat English

It has become commonplace, in this age of globalization, to speak of writers who change language. But what about those writers who move to another country and do not change language?

May 10, 2016

Here's What I Hate About Writers' Houses

On the subject of Writers’ Houses, that dark genius Robert Frost would have understood the paradox I find myself inhabiting: that I hate them in general, but soften to something like affection in the face of particular places. Frost enjoyed mocking his own, and others’, ambivalences, especially when personal feeling interfered with principle. Whether or not he also would have enjoyed hearing my footsteps in his old parlor and study is another matter; I would guess not.

August 11, 2011

An Interview with David Foster Wallace

At least here in America, we’re in a time that’s very, very cynical. So that when you have a piece of pop-culture that has a very virtuous person or a hero, people see those qualities much more as presentations by someone who’s trying to get something, whether money or approval, than true human virtue or true qualities. One consequence of what American scholars call a post-modern era is that everyone has seen so many performances, that American viewers and American readers, we simply assume now that everything is a performance and it’s strategic and it’s tactical. It’s a very sad situation and I think the chances are that nations go through periods of great idealism and great cynicism, and that America and Europe, at least Western Europe right now, are in periods of great cynicism.

June 13, 2011